I’m gonna forget too many people so I’ll start with apologies for that. Juls and Brian are moderating a great turnout and people continue to filter in even halfway through. We’ve had Charlie Brown, Debbie Cook, Steve Young and Russ Warner join us to talk about their campaigns. Calitics regular soyinkafan is opening a lot of ears and eyes about Manuel Perez’s campaign in the 80th district (where he’s up big). Not only is the room full of familiar names from DailyKos (thereisnospoon, malacandra, shayera, hekebolos, highacidity, msrpotus), but we’ve got representatives from a wide range of progressive allies: ACLU, SEIU-UHW West, ActBlue, Blue State Digital, United Farm Workers the list goes on. The infrastructure available and the interest focused on netroots action and activism.

Dave Johnson just reminded everyone about another friend of Calitics and California good governance Hannah-Beth Jackson, running in Senate district 19 against the no good Tony Strickland. Updates to come.

[Update] Suzanne Savage from SoCal ACLU raises upcoming proposition fights which brings up the responsibility that a lot of us who obsess about politics need to take more seriously. It’s not always the sexiest stuff, but our friends, co-workers and relatives will be turning to us as the “political” ones for advice on this. This is one place where we can definitely have a huge impact because people are highly open to suggestion when the ballot gets crowded with dry and confusing propositions. Educate yourself so you can help educate others.

[Update] Reps from UHW just gave a great rundown of upcoming labor fights. I won’t even try to do it justice in real time here, but their website is a great resource as will be diaries on Calitics that will be coming soon. Dave Dayen is on to the California brain drain, which I can attest to just today in my struggles to convince “national” Californians to attend this very caucus.

[Update] Representative from UFW gave a moving and troubling account of the impact of the heat on farmworkers who are dying and ending up in the hospital. They’re campaigning and hoping for any attention and support. You can get involved at their website. A little (or a lot) of love for the amazing unstoppable force Martha Gamez.

[Update] Eden James, being the trouble maker that he is, threw open a discussion of the 2010 gubernatorial primary. Candidates reeled off include Jerry Brown, Gavin Newsom, Bill Lockyer, Jack O’Connell, John Garamendi, Antonio Villaraigosa, Loretta Sanchez, Dave mentioned drafting Hilda Solis. Support for Newsom and Brown, though not necessarily enthusiastic support.

[Update] Talk about governor turns to working against Prop 13, the 2/3 rule and other process problems. And now on to assembly campaigns that can help us get to 2/3 and on to broader discussion of how to find candidates who understand netroots and grassroots power. Ways to insist on respect, build bridges between natural allies and change the quality of of campaigning. How to wield unifying and constructive rhetoric.

[Update] We’re wrapping up now with some talk about voter registration and fostering activism, specifically in relation to the Obama movement. What strikes me most about this caucus is the wide range of great people all in a room who otherwise don’t tend to communicate in this manner. Emails and the occasional conference call really can’t replicate this sort of setting for fostering discussion and new ideas. And for me personally, it reminds me of at least a dozen people, orgs, and blogs that I need to be reconnecting with and/or paying more attention to. Seeing everybody together like this really reignites my passion for the possibilities in California. Hopefully I’m not the only one.

Now that we’re done hopefully somebody’ll log on and comment…

(I’m at the Obama/DNC registration event right now, this was a great event this afternoon with Dr. Dean.  Get out the vote!!! – promoted by David Dayen)

The Barack Obama/DNC “Register for Change” bus just pulled up in front of the Netroots Nation convention in Austin, Texas, so that DNC Chairman Howard Dean could lead a rally and then register voters outside the Austin Convention Center.  Dean’s visit took place during a noon-time break in panel discussions being led by the Obama campaign and the DNC, laying out their plan for winning in 2008.

Those of you who have read emails and posts from the California Democratic Party have already heard many of the specifics for their plan.  The primary tool that Democrats will be using to win this election in November is the Neighborhood Leader program.

In the morning’s first presentation, the speaker, Parag Mehta of the DNC outlined the effectiveness of various forms of communicating with voters.  He provided some data about political outreach that were extremely telling.  

The contact required to garner one vote for your cause requires the following:

• 389 mailers
• 460 phone calls
• 14 doors knocked

Those numbers don’t leave much doubt as to where we can most effectively increase our numbers of Democratic votes for November.  And something tells me there’s going to be a lot more talk here at Netroots Nation about the Neighborhood Leader program.  

That’s because the premise is strikingly effective and amazingly simple.  You sign up to be a Neighborhood Leader and promise to talk to 25 of your friends and neighbors about your Democratic values and the candidates who share your values.  You talk to them three separate times between now and November.   Then you try to find two other people to volunteer to become Neighborhood Leaders.

Our message is amplified exponentially, and most importantly our message comes to people from trusted sources.

It’s such a powerful tool, that they even plastered the message on the side of the Register for Change bus.

Penny

Online Organizing Director

California Democratic Party

Dave Johnson, Speak Out California.

The other day I brought up immigration, asking the practical question of how we would identify people who are here without documentation.

Suppose — just suppose — the people who advocate harsh treatment of non-citizens are successful in their efforts, and our government starts an effort to locate and deport them. How do we identify who is here without authorization? This is a practical question.

Americans are not required to “carry papers.” We do not have checkpoints, and inside of the country we do not have to prove that we are traveling with proper authorization. We certainly do not have to prove that we are citizens. Many of us could never even locate the documentation necessary to prove citizenship if we were, in fact, required to prove it.

One answer that comes up frequently is to deal with the immigration question through employment.  The reason people come here is to try to have a better life, which means employment.  So this opens up a two-pronged approach.  One, attack the undocumented resident problem through the employers, and the other is to help the countries south of us to improve their economies so people are not desperately trying to come here so they can feed their families.  (And opening up markets of people who can afford to buy things we make here, by the way.)  Meanwhile, employers here are taking advantage of desperate people for their own gain.

So to approach this problem though employment we ask employers here to check for documentation when hiring.    This is a natural time to do this, because people already need to show they are who they say they are when applying for jobs.  An employer who hires an undocumented worker is the one committing the crime.

But what happens to families and lives if we cause people working now to be fired?  What happens to neighborhoods, businesses, already-eroding housing prices, local tax bases, and all the other things that can be affected if hundreds of thousands — maybe even millions — of people are suddenly without jobs and forced to move?  Perhaps part of the answer to the problem is to freeze any new hiring of people who are not citizens or have resident status, so the problem at least stops getting worse and ever harder to solve.  But it is not a good idea for human and economic reason to punish people who are already living and working here.

The current discussion of immigration is so focused on the word “illegal” and that word helps turn human beings into a faceless, criminal “them.”  But it really is human beings, with families and lives just like everyone else.

Please discuss.

Ckick through to Speak Out California to join our discussion there.

So reports the LA Times:

The California Supreme Court refused Wednesday to remove an anti-gay marriage initiative from the November ballot.

Meeting in closed session, the court denied a petition calling for the removal of the initiative, Proposition 8, on the grounds it was a constitutional revision that only the Legislature or a constitutional convention could place before voters….

The court, meeting at its regular weekly conference, denied the petition without comment in a brief order.

No surprise here, especially if you’ve been following Brian’s excellent commentaries on the issue.

November isn’t that far away. If you haven’t signed up with Equality for All – what the hell are you waiting for?!